1Chapter 5
USS Darkhawk, Alonious VII System
Captain's Log: We are now arriving in the Alonious VII System, the last known position of the USS Minsk. Since speaking with Captain Picard I have a growing sense of dread about what might be lurking in the shadows of space. I have received a message that Starfleet has sent two more ships to Alonious VII, most likely to relieve us so we can proceed to DS9. However they wont arrive for another few hours. I have now gotten the chance to get to know my crew a little bit better while on the way to Alonious VII. I can see by their service records this is going to be a good, hard working crew. A perfect fit for this ship.
On the main view screen Alonious VII came into view, the main planet in the system, Alonious Prime, was the only planet in the system to sustain life. It was a large M class planet, which looked a lot like Earth in a lot of different ways. Since Alonious Prime is a pre-warp civilization near the Romulan Boarder Starfleet set up a single military and observation outpost on Alonious Prime's main continent. The outpost itself is another mystery, Starfleet lost contact with them a week before they sent the USS Minsk to investigate.
"Sir, we have arrived at the Minsks' last know location." Informed Ensign Anderson from behind the helm station.
"Captain, I am picking up the warp signature of the Minsk."
Kirk stood up and began to walk over to the young Vulcan's science station. Kirk had a fondness for Vulcans, they are intelligent, and noble people who have a dark side to them. Kirk always found that the dark side to Vulcans was rather intriguing, Lieutenant Valelle was no exception. There was a raging animal below the calm emotionless exterior she showed.
She is a ball of sexual energy just waiting to be released, Kirk thought as he stood over Lieutenant Valelle
"Captain, I have plotted a course into the computer to follow the Minsks' neutrino emissions."
"Very good Lieutenant," Kirk said turning to face the helm, "Mr. Anderson please engage engines to follow the trail Ms. Valelle has plotted for us, full impulse power."
"Aye sir, full impulse power."
Ensign Peter Anderson was the youngest of the bridge crew, at twenty years old. Although he is Fresh out of the Academy, he was one of the best pilots the Academy had seen in years. Kirk had to admit his young appearance was shocking at first, but it was easy to tell this kid was going to be all right. He carried himself like a veteran, and was far more mature for his age than anybody would suspect. He was an excellent choice to pilot the Darkhawk.
Kirk had thought to call Captain McLean to the bridge to man the empty engineering station on the bridge, but deiced other wise due to the lack of crew currently aboard.
"Captain," Lieutenant Valelle called out, "I have found the Minsk."
Kirk turned back to his science officer.
"She is adrift, one thousand meters off our starboard side."
"Life signs?" Kirk asked.
Lieutenant Valelle pushed a few buttons on her console looking into the Captain question. When she did not get the results she wanted Valelle repeated the sequence.
"Interesting." She said to herself.
"What is it Lieutenant?"
"Sir, the Minsk is surrounded by a thick cloud of radiation of unknown origin. My scans cannot penetrate it."
"Is the radiation dangerous?"
"No sir. It is just low levels of radiation; it is only effecting their communications, and blocking our scans. Our own internal environmental shields will keep us safe if you wish to maintain the cloak."
"Mr. Anderson, bring us into transporter range of the Minsk."
"Aye sir."
The Darkhawk turned head on with the Minsk. Traveling at full impulse power the distance between the two ships was quickly closed.
"Mr. Ka'Vork, drop the cloak, we want to let them know we are here. Open a channel, maybe we can get through to them at this range with audio only."
"Aye sir."
The light levels on the bridge rose back to standard levels as main systems started to return to full power. The ships cloak disengaged with the same loud sound as it had before, with in seconds the ship was clearly becoming visible again.
As the Darkhawk was just coming back into the visible range the Minsk opened fire on the decloaking ship.
"Sir, they are firing!" Yelled Lt. Commander Ka'Vork.
Kirk wasted no time giving orders as he saw the weapons fire coming from the Minsk, "Evasive maneuvers, yellow alert."
The bridge shook as a single phaser blast made it way past the ships shields smashing against the Darkhawk's ablative armor.
"Communication systems have been severely damaged.
Kirk spun his chair to face Lt. Commander Ka'Vork who was bracing himself as impacts from photon torpedoes shook the ship.
"Report."
"Communications are down, shields down to 85, and the Minsk is still firing."
Their sensors must not be working properly. Kirk thought spinning back around to face the main view screen.
"Red Alert, Commander Ka'Vork target main weapons, and shields. Mr. Anderson, bring us around to attack their aft section."
All stations were hard at work trying to defuse this possibly deadly situation. There is one thing Starfleet hates more than losing a ship; losing a shit to friendly fire. As the Darkhawk banked sharply to get around the Minsk she took one last shot to her rear shields before out maneuvering the Minsk.
"Sir, I am not getting any response from remote quarry. They must have locked out their main computer."
The Darkhawk was now directly behind the Minsk in a perfect attack position.
"Mr. Anderson, match speed to target. Commander Ka'Vork fire phasers." Kirk ordered.
The Darkhawk's top phaser array fired two strong shots striking the Minsk on it's main saucer section, causing the ship to take more aggressive evasive mangroves.
"Minor damage to the Minsk sir."
"We need to disable them and quickly Captain." Informed Commander Kesloh from her station across the bridge.
"Agreed," Kirk said pausing to think of a new plan of attack, "Commander prepare pulse cannons and quantum torpedoes."
"Weapons ready sir."
"Fire Quantum Torpedoes."
"Firing." Lt. Commander said pushing down on the firing command.
Two bright white and blue torpedoes burst out of the front of the Darkhawk at warp speed on a direct course for the Minsk. Both torpedoes find their mark on the forward section of the Saber class vessel, exploding in two brilliant flashes of white light.
"Direct hit Captain. The Minsk's shields are down." Informed Lt. Commander Ka'Vork.
The Saber class vessel, causing minor damage to the front deflector shields, again fired upon staying behind the Minsk the Darkhawk.
Kirk stood up to begin issuing orders when he was overcome by a sense of dizziness. He quickly flopped back down in his chair to regain his composure. He then heard it again, voices, the voices that haunt his dreams. The voices of the Borg. He could hear the orders being give to the crew of the Minsk to continue the attack on the Darkhawk.
"Sir? Are you alright?" Asked Commander Kesloh as she came over to Kirks said to give him aid if he needed it.
"I can hear them." Kirk whispered.
Standing up Kirk quickly adjusted his uniform, "Commander, destroy that ship!"
"Sir!"
"That ship has been assimilated by the Borg."
"Captain," Commander Ka'Vork said trying not to be defiant, "There is no evidence of that."
Commander Kesloh turned to Lt. Commander Ka'Vork with a confused look on her face. She did not know what to do; trust her gut feeling or trust her Captain whom wanted to destroy another Federation Starship.
"Electromagnetic storm just appeared off our port side sir. It seems to be heading right for us."
Kirk quickly forgot about the Minsk and began issuing orders for Ensign Anderson to pilot the ship away from the storm. As the Darkhawk moved away from the storm she had moved right into the phaser and photon torpedo range of the Minsk.
They have boxed us in.
"Commander, fire."
This time there was no hesitation, the Klingon fired defensively just trying to disable the weapons systems on the Minsk. Two more shots fired from the forward facing phaser array, this time the impacts were not met with damage but a bright green glow upon each impact.
"The Minsk has adapted to our weapons." Informed Commander Ka'Vork.
"Modulate the phaser frequencies and torpedo yields. Commander, fire when ready; and Commander, air carefully we only have a limited number of torpedoes." Kirk said looking directly at the Klingon.
Lt. Commander Ka'Vork was preparing the new frequencies on the weapons when Lieutenant Valelle stood up and announced with an uncharacteristic shock.
"Borg Cube decloaking Captain!"
All eyes turned to the main viewer as the large cube decloaked from the electromagnetic storm. Kirk stood frozen looking at the massive cube in front oh him. The cube he now saw was much larger than any he remembered seeing while connected to the collective. Kirk now could hear commands coming from inside the cube; he heard orders being issued from with in the cube and the Minsk.
Ensign Anderson instinctively began evasive mangroves trying to keep from being hit from the Minsk, and now the Borg Cube. Banking hard the Darkhawk was again struck in the rear, this time by a high intensity-cutting beam from the Borg Cube.
"First things first, Mr. Ka'Vork destroy the Minsk. Bring us around for a clean shot Mr. Anderson."
After moments of touch and go dog fighting Ensign Anderson was able to bring the Darkhawk directly behind the Minsk, he again quickly maneuvered the nimble ship into a perfect firing position for Lt. Commander Ka'Vork. Ka'Vork took no time spotting his chance; he fired a full spread of Quantum Torpedoes, matched with all six pulse cannons firing directly at the main hull section of the Minsk. The damage done to the Minsk was quick and deadly. Upon impact of the Quantum Torpedoes, the ship began to spiral out of control. Once the pulse cannons impacted against the ships starboard warp nacelles, her lights began to flicker.
"I am getting scans of heavy damage to the Minsk, it looks like her warp core is going to breach." Reported Ka'Vork while he looked over his sensor readings.
Just as he finished his sentence the Minsk exploded directly in front of the Darkhawk sending large and small debris alike smashing into her shields.
"We need to warn the fleet of the Borg's presence." Ordered Commander Kesloh.
Kirk nodded in agreement, "Mr. Ka'Vork, prepare to cloak the ship. Mr. Anderson, keep us alive."
"Aye sir, I will do my best." replied the young pilot.
Ensign Anderson was piloting the ship like a twenty-year veteran. He brought the nimble Darkhawk racing down the front face of the Borg Cube, leaving anti-matter mines in his wake. As the mines exploded the cube fired all its cutting beams at the Darkhawk in a calculated attempt to damage the little ship. Ensign Anderson was dodging the beams as best as he could, but it was a matter of time before the Borg were finally able to hit their mark. Ensign Anderson flew the ship directly into the path of a high intensity-cutting beam. The beam smashed into the top of the bridge causing a massive explosion to occur inside the bridge itself, sending most of the bridge crew to the floor.
Lieutenant Valelle pulled herself up from off the floor. She was amazed that the Darkhawk was still heading away from the cube at full impulse power.
"Sir, the Cube has started a pursuit course."
Getting to his feet Kirk sat back down in his chair and listened to the report from Lt. Valelle.
"Now Mr. Ka'Vork, engage the cloak. Ensign continued evasive maneuvers."
The Darkhawk again banked sharply as the Federation cloaking device came to life. While the cloaking device was bending the light around the Darkhawk the Borg Cube fired wildly in an effort to destroy the ship before it cloaked. The cube was only slightly successful, a single cutting beam slammed into the starboard nacelle, causing the ship to phase in and out of cloak for a second before it fully disappeared.
On The Bridge, sparks flew out from the engineering station. The last hit caused the lights to flicker before going to the standard low settings once the cloak was engaged.
"Report!" Yelled Kirk.
Lt. Commander Ka'Vork was first to respond, "Hull integrity done to 70, shields are down to 30 in the front, 5 in the aft sections. Phasers, cannon, and torpedo bays still online sir."
"Sir, long range sensors are offline, communications are down." Reported Lieutenant Valelle.
"Captain Kirk to Captain McLean." Kirk heard over his COM Badge.
"Go ahead Chief."
Warp engines are down; the starboard nacelle has been heavily damaged. I had to transfer power from the port side nacelle to compensate. The best we can do right now is one quarter impulse power."
Kirk stayed in his seat, looking around at the wires, and optical cable hanging out from the roof of the bridge. Several stations were offline, and it appeared the emergency transporter system was also offline.
"Ms. Valelle, please check out the emergency powers status."
This is not how I would have imaged our shake down cruise was going to go, Kirk thought to himself, waiting for the report to come back from the young Vulcan.
"Emergency power is still available." She finally replied.
"Good," Kirk said standing up form his chair. He adjusted his jacket and looked around to each station. Some stations were blacked out from damage during the engagement; most of the bridge stations were still online. Hanging from the top of the bridge was optical cables, wires, and tubes that had broken through the panels above several stations.
"Suggestions?" Kirk finally asked after he looked over the damage done to the ship.
A moment of silence past and it became clear to him that even his senior staff did not have an idea of how to escape the situation.
"I have an idea Captain," Valelle finally said breaking the silence, "Alonious Prime is a pre-warp civilization, that mean more than likely Starfleet should have an observation post on the planet."
The idea had sound logic and followed Starfleet's ever-growing fascination with pre-warp civilizations. Kirk himself could never understand the ideas behind sneaking around and spying on a planet that had never reached the heavens. It fueled UFO stories and witch hunts on these underdeveloped planets. More often than not it caused problems where no problems had originally existed.
"Where is the cube right now?" Kirk asked.
Valelle turned to look at the sensor read outs on her station's console. With in seconds she had answer for her captain, "Sir, they are performing heavy anti-cloak scans approx 2,000 meters off our starboard side. They are traveling only at 1/8th impulse power." Valelle reported.
"They are being thorough," Kirk, whispered to himself, "Ensign lay in a course for Alonious Prime. Place us in a standard orbit once we reach the planet. Ms. Valelle, locate the outpost. We need to use it's long range communications to contact Captain Picard and let him know what are situation is like."
"Aye sir, course laid in."
Kirk stood up form his chair and walked to the back of the bridge. All eyes were on him as he stopped just before the turbo lift doors, "Commander Ka'Vork your with me, Commander Kesloh you have the bridge."
"Aye sir." Kesloh replied taking the Captain's chair.
Kirk stepped into the turbo lift followed quickly by Lt. Commander Ka'Vork. The two men stood at opposite side of the turbo lift and waited for the doors to close.
"Commander, we need to get this ship battle worthy again." Kirk said as the turbo lift doors closed.
Ka'Vork nodded his head being rather quiet for a Klingon in a battle situation. Kirk could feel the Klingon's feeling of failure in the battle Kirk felt it as well.
"Engineering." Kirk ordered the turbo lift.
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